The Freedom to Tinker blog (a good read in its own right) points to a fascinating new blog where two University of Michigan grad students are applying computational information analysis and complex systems thinking to issues of law and government; this visualization of US Code Title 11 (the law governing bankruptcy) is just one nifty example.

We have become interesting in visualizing the structure of the law including its components and subcomponents. In reduced form, statutes, regulations and certain other units of the law can be characterized in graph theoretical terms. While we do not make deep inroads on the content of this above graph, we do generate a tree traversable visualization for its structure.

Much of my training in law school particularly in the so called â€œcode-basedâ€ classes was focused upon developing mental models for the structure and content of graphs such as the one displayed above. In my case, I believe the usage of such a visualization early in a code-based course would have been beneficial. Thus, we offer this traversable visualization to the world for not only its research value but also for pedagogical purposes.

There are some fascinating ideas in government transparency popping up these days, mostly driven by individuals and small groups taking advantage of whatever information does manage to worm its way out into public view. Sort of the opposite of “Munge” (mash until no good), these folks mash until *good*.

Everybody needs to read this – business folks for guidance as to what those crazy agile developers are asking you do do, and developers for what you need to help your business folks do.

I particularly like the quote

I happily served my time on this XP project as a developer. Although I felt the product concept and release strategy was flawed, it wasnâ€™t my problem, the hole was in their side of the boat.

I think that’s one of the biggest problems with the silo-structured organization – all your incentives are to make sure the hole isn’t in your side of the boat, rather than keep the whole thing afloat.

So when a team member says that a story is Done and moves the story card into the Done column, a customer could run into the room at that moment and say “Great Lets go live now”, and nobody in the team will say “no, but wait”.

The rest of the article is a good model of how to manage branches in a medium-complex development environment; well worth the read for anyone working in a group.

Security is somewhat of a habit, an attitude, a way of thinking and life. You wonâ€™t become a secure programmer just because you learned of a new vulnerability, exploit or security trick today, although it may help and have a cumulative effect.

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In Mexico tomorrow, families and neighbors will begin the traditional novena (nine days) in preparation for the Nativity of Christ, Las Posadas. For each of the next nine nights, the faithful will reenact Joseph and Maryâ€™s search for a place to spend the evening so that Mary could birth Peace among us, Jesus Christ. Los peregrinos – the pilgrims â€“ will go from home to home, only to be turned away at two homes before reaching the third, where they will be invited in.

The third entry had me sitting at my desk crying. It’s easy to say it’s “their problem” from up here in Canada, but we slam plenty of doors here to. This winter it was one of the seasonal farm workers that keep the farming economy of southern Ontario alive. He was diagnosed with cancer this past summer, and allowed to stay in Canada for treatment. However, when his children tried to get permission to spend one last Christmas together with him, his son’s request was denied. Fortunately, in this case, the media storm caused officials to reconsider and allow both children to visit.

The door is open wide for residents of the “first world”; they would not have needed a visa to begin with (though they still could have been arbitrarily denied entry by the border agent).